Glitch Hunter

by Skyler Grant

  Hardened Analysis Mode (10 XP)

  Your Analysis Mode will be hardened against disorienting attacks used by some Glitch as well as interference caused by weaker magical wards.

  Pain Dampening (10 XP)

  While some pain can be useful too much can hamper effectiveness in a fight. With this upgrade you can an enhanced ability to shrug off pain for short periods and maintain focus.

  There were good options here, and interesting ones. Alex had once wanted the hardened Analysis Mode but with becoming more used to Jess he wasn't sure he needed it.

  While pain dampening would be useful, two upgrades seemed to combine together very well and ultimately he decided on purchasing the Grimoire Recipes and Improved Deductive Engine.

  You have taken the Grimoire Recipes Upgrade

  New recipes have been unlocked and added to your Grimoire

  You have upgraded the Deductive Engine utilized by your bracer

  New recipes have been unlocked and added to your Grimoire

  Now it was time to spend that Red XP. Alex had never looked at that screen before.

  Red Experience Interface

  WARNING

  Utilizing any experience other than black comes with a risk of corruption occurring. All Experience of other alignments can be exchanged for black at a two for one ratio.

  Current Options

  Exchange: You will gain 2.5 Black XP

  Fury Rate (5 XP)

  You will gain Fury in a fight at a twenty-five percent faster rate. This will grant you the bonuses granted by high values faster.

  Detect Rage (5 XP)

  A visual indicator will indicate when someone in your vicinity becomes enraged. While this will not indicate a reason for the rage this may be helpful at discerning incoming threats.

  That was strange. Alex's interface went to such length to issue him warnings, and yet one of the upgrades offered was an enhancement to an ability he'd gained just last level.

  It wasn't really a choice, while Detect Rage was interesting, increasing the rate at which he gathered Fury would help him in combat and that was the greater need at the moment.

  Experience spent, it was time to deal with his bracer.

  31

  “The best prey hunts you back. That feeling when the tracks have led you into a trap, that is knowing you’re going to have one of the best meals of your life tonight.” Axen Fol, House of the Wild

  Alex wasn't precisely sure how to go about talking with his bracer directly. He'd been practicing getting information out of it, yet the thing could be surprisingly picky and selective about word choice and phrasing. Still, what choice did he have?

  "Bracer, I request to speak with a representative of the House of Bats regarding my current quest," Alex said.

  Authorization Denied

  That wasn't really a surprise, he hadn't expected the direct approach to work.

  Alex tried again. "Bracer, neutralizing the threat posed by Ebonhart required the teleportation of Yasmine Cinquedea to a location where she can no longer assist Falkirk. I am a low-level holder of the Glaive bracer facing a significant threat alone and requesting whatever aid the House of Bats can provide."

  Request Received

  Details Confirmed.

  Will reroute Ranseur and Pike upon completion of their current assignment as support.

  Expectation is that they will not arrive in time.

  No further assets will be provided

  Quest reward for successful completion has been upgraded

  Good Hunting, Glitch Hunter

  That wasn't at all what Alex had hoped for. He was almost certain that his bracer was capable of far more—it could likely pinpoint the precise source of what was happening in town—but it wouldn't reveal that information.

  Why? What was there to gain in making things harder?

  There was only one real answer which made sense. Alex had misunderstood the priorities of the House of Bats. They might be interested in saving Falkirk, but not as interested as they were in making sure that a smart and strong hunter wore the Glaive bracer. If he proved capable, they'd see him rewarded—and if he died in what was to come they'd get another opportunity anway.

  Alex gave it up for the night and went to seek out Sabrina. It was time for bed and time to level-up once more. This time she wanted to make a game of it based on the expression he had worn last time, and see if she could bring him to climax in the middle of leveling-up. He wasn't inclined to argue.

  It was with the baroness straddling him and rocking vigorously when he issued the command and tore his world apart once more. Each time the process got more intense, although the pleasurable undertones this time kept it from being agonizing. Still, what his body did in the background was almost background, and was happening on some big picture scale while he was being torn apart and reassembled on a smaller level.

  Congratulations

  You are now level 4

  Your senses have been upgraded.

  Alex knew that at once as he came back to himself. Never had he been able to hear Sabrina's heartbeat quite so loudly, and he thought that if he focused he might almost be able to feel the individual threads of the sheets.

  It was a nice thing in moments of pleasure, but these enhanced senses weren't there to make him a more satisfying lover.

  They were to make him a better hunter and killer.

  A new morning and a new update to the timer.

  WARNING

  Destruction of Falkirk is now estimated to occur in three days

  The next day Alex finally got some luck, although of a dark sort. A woman had turned up dead in the morning. Cassandra had sent word to the keep right away and Alex hurried into town.

  The streets were already less populated, Cassandra had been spreading the word and those that had the means to leave town were doing so. A week’s visit to family or a trip away, just in case.

  Ryn was waiting for him, dressed in armor and her face still heavily bruised from the day before. The stab wounds she'd inflicted on Alex had largely healed, her daggers weren't magically enchanted and his body had been able to deal with these quickly.

  The body was in one of the city’s squares, nude and heavily mutilated. Alex would have to inspect the corpse to figure out more.

  "Hey Alex, sorry about yesterday," Ryn said.

  "Likewise. How are you? Cassandra wasn't doing well," Alex said.

  "At least I hear she held it together. I don't know what bothers me more. That I tried to kill you or that I was so driven out of my mind I made such an embarrassingly bad try of it," Ryn said.

  "You stabbed me a few times. It was a good showing," Alex said, kneeling beside the body.

  The woman had been eviscerated, torn from throat to crotch.

  When Alex engaged Analysis Mode the bands that crossed his vision were thicker now, with hints of color that hadn't been present before. Several places on the corpse called for his attention and he started at the feet and worked his way up.

  Feet

  Heavy Callouses

  Stood most of the day

  Not exactly useful for identifying what killed her, but it might help him to narrow in on who the woman was and where she had been taken from.

  Crotch

  Recent Sexual Activity

  Either what had killed her also stripped and raped her, or perhaps she'd been killed while with a lover. Alex kept going.

  Hands

  Light Callouses

  Wine Stains

  Not just wine. Although it was difficult over the smell of her intestines Alex's enhanced senses could pick up the scent of ale on her hands. A barmaid perhaps? Alex moved on to the mess that had been made of her insides. Analysis Mode indicated something further under her nails.

  Skin Flakes

  Draconic

  Ribs

  Broken and fractured

  Internal Organs

  None missing

  Evisceration

  Wounds appear infli
cted by curved talons

  Deductive Engine Results

  Probability: 54%

  Drake

  Grimoire Entry Unlocked

  Drake

  Alignment: Green

  Drake are distant cousins to dragons and unlike their relatives are far more feral although not nearly as deadly. Both are of the Draconid family and have an obsession with hoarding shiny things and a fascination with young women. Drakes will usually grab them and fly them back to their lair where they will hold them for weeks, feeding them like one of their own offspring until eventually they die from complications of eating raw meat or attempts to escape.

  Vulnerabilities: Frost (Winter's Breath Ampule recipe unlocked), Harmonized Steel, Draconid Oil (recipe unlocked). Drakes are resistant to piercing and slashing damage as well as fire.

  The upgrades were already showing their use and some differences.

  "Find anything?" Ryn asked, looking over his shoulder. She didn't seem much bothered by death. A lot of people would have gotten squeamish at the sight.

  "It’s most likely a drake," Alex said.

  "Like a small dragon? Why would one of those strip her naked? They don't ..."

  "No, they don't. This killing doesn't fit a drake’s usual pattern. They hold their victims for weeks, but she had sex recently. I think her and her lover must have gotten too close to its lair during their tryst."

  "There isn't a second body that we know of. You think he got away?"

  "That is the hope. I think she was a barmaid. If we can find out who she was, we can probably find him. Help me go around to the taverns?" Alex asked.

  "None of us is going to get answers half as well as Cass's people," Ryn said, motioning over a bald and scarred man standing nearby. A few words were exchanged and he ran off.

  "They'll find our guy and bring him to us," Ryn said.

  "Just like the arsonist."

  "Hopefully a little gentler," Ryn said, with a weak smile that made her wince. "Don't make me use my face. Using my face hurts."

  "I'd offer you a healing potion, but it would probably kill you."

  "That sword isn't coming back, right? It’s somewhere far away where we'll never see it again?"

  "I hope so. I know what Cass got hit with. What about you?"

  "My family got butchered by Youlash and not that long ago I almost got raped to death by those same bastards. What do you think it offered me?" Ryn said, rolling her head back and forth. "Cass told me too about what it offered her—power. At least power doesn't have to be bad. I just wanted bloodshed, I wanted to drown in it until there was nothing else."

  "But that isn't you," Alex said.

  Ryn stared at him and shook her head. "You sure? It felt pretty much like me."

  Alex shrugged. "If you're a monster, you're the kind that isn't my problem, but I don't see it. If you think you're headed down that road then it’s up to you to do something about it."

  Ryn let out a low breath. "I don't have it in me to forgive and forget, Alex, not for what they did. I won't."

  "If you can't forgive, then put yourself in a position where you won't have to fight that battle," Alex said.

  Two burly looking men approached dragging a wild-haired young man reeking of ale. He let out a sob upon catching sight of the body.

  "That was quick," Alex said.

  "He was bragging about fighting off a dragon. Weren't hard," said one of the men.

  The young man said, "I did. Drove that dragon right off I did with me fists, but my Bianca ..." He choked a moment.

  "Wasn't a dragon and you didn't drive it off. Where did you encounter it?" Alex asked.

  "Near the old harbormaster’s shack. There be a straw mattress there." The rest was obvious.

  "I get the picture. He can go," Alex said, looking over to Ryn. "Know where that is?"

  "Part of the harbor that they burned. Never rebuilt, I can show you."

  "What about the body, Sir Glitch Hunter?" asked one of the men.

  "If Bianca had family let them know and take care of the arrangements. However, something bad is coming and I suggest they burn her."

  Ryn led him towards the harbor and then into a section that seemed abandoned. Charred pillars above the water were all that was left of docks that once lined the shore.

  "Why did these never get rebuilt?" Alex asked.

  "Half the merchants in town were dead and Falkirk had just been through a war. Nobody wanted to make the investment. The baroness hasn't done much to bring that back," Ryn said.

  The harbormaster’s old shack was a squat affair, undamaged by the fires but fallen into disrepair. Inside there was an old straw mattress only slightly rotted.

  "Romantic," Ryn said.

  "You'll forgive me if I don't make a pass," Alex said.

  "I think we did enough rolling around on the floor yesterday," Ryn said, deadpan.

  Alex grunted and inspected the surroundings. If the lover’s tryst was here then the attack must have happened nearby. There, Analysis Mode detected bare footsteps leaving the shack and heading towards the shore. Perhaps Bianca must have wanted to look at the moon afterward. Sometimes one had to make your own romance.

  There, on the shore. Traces of blood and Bianca’s tracks vanished without going back towards the shack. There were no recent tracks of anyone else near the shore, although some led away from the shack and plainly ran back into the city.

  Drove a dragon off with his fists indeed, Bianca's lover had seen what was happening and fled for his life.

  The scene of the confrontation wasn't helpful, so Alex searched farther along the shore. If Bianca's presence had disturbed the drake out of its routine, then there was a routine. There, a pile of small, rotting fish skeletons. A few larger ones as well, some sort of small whales?

  The drake came here to feed, most likely at night, which was why there weren't reports from the townsfolk of something strange. Alex could track it back to its lair, but there were better uses of his time today.

  "Let's go. I'll come back tonight and ambush it where it feeds," Alex said.

  "I'll come with you," Ryn said.

  "Don't tell me the mattress appealed after all."

  "You wish. You've lost your partner and you need somebody to watch your back."

  "You're no match for a Glitch," Alex said.

  "Then it’s good I won’t be alone. I'm sticking close by your side," Ryn said.

  It put her at risk, but Alex figured that was her choice to make. If she wanted to come along, it was a help. Her skills had already proved useful.

  "Then come with me now. We're off to find out why ships are going missing," Alex said.

  32

  “All I’ve ever done is act and figure out why I was right afterward. Forethought is for cowards.” The Hero of Korkai

  Alex wasn't working off much with his next plan. Cassandra was keeping him informed of anything that seemed odd in the city though, and something strange had been noticed. Normally the lighthouse keeper in the harbor came into town once a month for supplies. He hadn't made the trip for several months.

  The light still shone in the harbor so nobody thought too much of it. With ships going missing it wasn't something that Alex felt he could ignore. A few coins were enough to convince a fisherman to row him and Ryn out to the island and wait for them.

  The island was rocky and barren. Nobody lived here apart from the lighthouse keeper. No surprise, there wasn't much that anyone would want.

  Something was off and Alex knew it from the moment he set foot ashore. The air was more chilled than on the water, cold enough that he could see his breath. There was also dissonance in the air, faint and distant, but familiar. If Alex was right, Deep Spawn were somewhere nearby. He would need to be extra cautious.

  "Why is it so cold?" Ryn asked, rubbing at her arms.

  "I don't know, but there are Glitch nearby. Let’s be careful and head towards the lighthouse."

  The path was a treacherous one, narrow and border
ing a cliff with jagged rocks below. They were wary as they worked their way up. It got colder as they went, every step seemed to be taking them more into winter.

  "I don't like this, Alex," Ryn said.

  "I don't either." They finally reached the door, which was covered in frost, and Alex pushed it aside. It wasn't locked, was that usual?

  The ground floor of the lighthouse was for the caretaker and it appeared long-deserted. The fire in the hearth had gone out and no lamps were lit. A winding stair led upward.

  Alex began to climb and Ryn followed. The steps were slick with ice in places and they had to take care not to slip, slowly reaching the top.

  The lighthouse was normally lit by a great brazier. A fire still burned there, but it was no natural flame. The fire was in shades of white and blue, and the air was frigid here. Runes had been sketched on the brazier, glowing with a dim light.

  "What is it?" Ryn asked.

  Alex had no idea. There was some sort of dissonance to the flame, but it was hard to focus on and he couldn't get a reading. Perhaps the runes could tell him more. Alex circled the brazier, keeping his distance and focusing on them each in turn, and Analysis Mode flickered on each although gave him no sort of prompts.

  However, when Alex stepped back more text began to scroll across his vision.